Being a UI/UX designer means possessing creative ideas, but it’s crucial to understand that ideas alone cannot craft distinctive user experiences and captivating interfaces. To achieve this, a dependable tech stack and robust UI/UX Design tools are essential for efficiently conceptualizing, designing, prototyping, and testing interfaces.
The challenge lies in finding these tools. How can you avoid wasting time and resources on options that fall short of expectations? Enter our compilation of the top 10 UI/UX tools for 2024.
These tools enjoy widespread adoption among designers globally, recognized for their exceptional quality and performance. Thus, let’s dive in and evaluate these tools based on the following criteria to determine which ones seamlessly integrate into your design tech stack:
- Key Features
- Suitable for (specific purposes like prototyping, wireframing, UI Design, animation, etc.)
- Works on (compatible operating systems such as Android, iOS, and Browser)
- Free trial/version availability
- Price
- G2 rating
Why Are UI/UX Tools Essential for Designers?
User Interface (UI) involves the creation of an interface with components aimed at enhancing comprehension. At the same time, User Experience (UX) concentrates on delineating the user’s path to craft an impeccable digital product. Presently, numerous software options in the market designated as UI/UX tools serve a dual purpose. They execute specific functions related to both processes.
For designers perusing this information, it is crucial to note that despite the versatility of UI/UX design tools, proficiency in each of these processes should still be cultivated independently. Becoming adept in multiple tools may require considerable time and dedication.
Top Useful Tools for UI/UX Designers
1. Adobe XD
As the foremost authority in cutting-edge UX tools for creative minds, Adobe XD stands out, offering a robust solution to assist you in crafting, prototyping, sharing, and collaborating seamlessly within their high-caliber application. This platform empowers you to fashion a master element with tailor-made properties, ensuring seamless integration across your website or application.
Key Features:
- Revamp the core element and disseminate it throughout the entire organization.
- Benefitting from enhanced vector tools, the adept resizing of assets that seamlessly adjusts across various platforms, and the inclusion of layout grids for meticulous design.
- They are tailored for designers within expansive organizations and enterprises seeking uniformity in their visual assets.
- Boasting an asset library facilitates swift alterations to graphics and styles, not to overlook the Repeat Grid feature empowering designers to establish a consistent style and, for instance, effortlessly replicate a contact list or a photo gallery as often as required.
Suitable for: Prototyping, Designing
Works on: Windows and macOS
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts from $9.99/month
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5
2. Mockplus
Mockplus stands out as a premier online UX tool, facilitating seamless collaboration between designers and developers. This tool expedites the creation of interactive prototypes of any fidelity, enabling designers to efficiently share, test, and iterate with their teams, thereby accelerating the entire product design workflow by a minimum of 200%.
Equipped with a prototyping tool boasting an extensive array of over 3000+ built-in design elements and templates, Mockplus empowers designers to translate their ideas into visual representations within minutes. The robust asset libraries provided by the tool make it effortless to design UI layouts and patterns, offering the advantage of reusing them consistently across pages, prototypes, and different teams.
Mockplus excels in fostering cross-team collaboration. Not only does it enable designers to streamline their workflow, but it also provides developers with a code-free and pixel-perfect design process, eliminating any potential chaos.
Key Features:
- It provides a no-code interface for expressing ideas through a simple drag-and-drop mechanism.
- An extensive collection of pre-built UI widgets and templates
- It enables collaborative co-designing of projects by your entire team simultaneously, with automatic synchronization of all edits.
- Facilitates the export of your prototype to an HTML demo package or any desired image format.
- Offers plugin support for Axure, Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Figma, and Adobe XD, allowing the prototyping of projects across various platforms.
- It empowers developers to quickly inspect, copy, and download design specifications, assets, and code snippets with a single click.
- It provides the capability to preview and test your web and app prototypes directly on real devices.
Suitable for: Wireframing, prototyping, mockup, animation, and UI designing
Works on: Browser, macOS and Windows
Free trial/version available: Yes
Prices: Start at $10.95/month
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5
3. Sketch
Sketch stands as a recognized standard in UX tools for crafting high-fidelity prototypes and interfaces, providing an immediate preview on mobile devices. The inclusion of a Symbols feature facilitates the generation of reusable UI elements.
This functionality enables the construction of design systems, promoting consistency in interface design. Additionally, it allows the exportation of the design into a fully functional prototype. Notably, there is no provision for a complimentary version or trial in its offerings.
Key Features:
- Utilizing this design and prototyping tool empowers users to generate mockups and distribute them among team members for input.
- Incorporate images and personalize the text to obtain a precise representation of the final product.
- This tool is advantageous for UX designers across all proficiency levels, particularly those seeking feedback from various team members.
- Sketch boasts an extensive user community and numerous integrations, simplifying the onboarding process.
Suitable for: Prototyping, Design
Works on: MAC
Free trial/version available: No
Price: Starts from $10/month
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5
4. InVision
InVision offers a trio of UI/UX design tools, presenting users with a unified platform for collaborative efforts and the swift creation of screen designs through prototyping. The accessibility of all prototypes, sketches, and designs in a single location is facilitated by InVision Cloud.
This tool is highly suggested for UX designers at various skill levels, as well as their counterparts within the product marketing organization, to expedite the process of prototyping and obtaining approval.
Key Features:
- The Studio platform provides the capability to swiftly prototype user experience feedback software utilizing vector-based drawing features and an elegant solution for rapidly generating responsive designs tailored for any screen.
- Executes screen transitions that replicate user navigations.
- It boasts multiple API integrations, enabling seamless connections with tools and media libraries already in use.
- InVision Design System Manager (DSM) serves as a content management library, serving as the singular source of truth for a company’s most current brand assets.
- It facilitates the organization of approved assets for the content marketing team.
- Within the DesignBetter.Co portal, InVision offers valuable books, podcasts, and workshops for designers seeking to enhance their skills.
Suitable for: Prototyping, UI Designing
Works on: MAC OS
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts from $4.95/month
G2 rating: 4.4 out of 5
5. Maze
Maze stands out as another remarkable tool for user interface (UI) design in our lineup. It functions as swift testing software, facilitating comprehensive testing with or without prototypes. This software for designing applications proves to be an excellent resource for validating concepts and mobile app ideas. It accommodates various testing types at any phase of the development process.
Key Features:
- Facilitates usability testing for obtaining comprehensive user insights through the use of open-ended follow-up inquiries.
- It permits the computation of quantitative metrics such as A/B tests, misclick rates, success rates, and page heatmaps.
- It provides an array of integrations with external tools like InVision, Marvel, Sketch, Adobe XD, and Figma.
Suitable for: Rapid prototype testing, Usability testing, A/B testing, Remote testing
Works on: Browsers
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts from $75/ month
G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5
6. Axure
Axure RP’s UI design tool enables swift prototyping with realistic functionality, courtesy of its dynamic content, conditional logic, and adaptive views features. Integration with well-known design tools like Sketch facilitates seamless design sharing with stakeholders.
This tool is remarkably suggested for project managers who need more design or coding skills. Documenting issues within the platform becomes effortless, ensuring alignment toward a common objective.
Key Features:
- Utilizing the Axure Cloud feature enables the swift sharing of prototypes across the whole organization, facilitating immediate feedback.
- Integration with Slack and Microsoft Teams ensures that your organization remains informed about the most recent changes.
- Facilitating the designer-to-developer handoff, the publication of Axure RP files to Axure Cloud includes documentation and prototypes, streamlining the process.
- Upgrading provides co-authoring capabilities, revision history, and team hosting on Axure Share.
- Additionally, it offers the capacity to hand over a project to the developer team with comprehensive documentation, catering to UX designers who prefer to avoid directly engaging with code.
Suitable for: Prototyping
Works on: Windows and macOS
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts from $25/user/month
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5
7. Figma
Figma stands out as a premier UI design tool, featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop interface editor that facilitates seamless collaboration across your entire organization. Unlike many UX tools, Figma excels in bridging the divide between designers, developers, and project managers.
Designers benefit from Figma’s robust features, such as the ability to constrain graphical elements to specific on-screen positions, Boolean operations for precise combinations of multiple shapes, and 60fps interactive editing for a clear preview of your design. This tool proves invaluable for UX designers in larger organizations, enabling them to expedite the design process alongside developers and project managers.
Key Features:
- Takes pride in being the singular, authoritative source for an organization, enabling the uploading of sanctioned reusable elements/icons, fonts, and styles.
- The developer workflow empowers team members to scrutinize code and extract visual assets and CSS directly from the design file.
- Possesses the capability to seamlessly integrate with the organization’s identity provider through SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO) integrations.
- Figma showcases case studies featuring collaborations with notable companies such as GitHub, Square, and Uber.
Suitable for: Design
Works on: Browser, macOS, and Windows
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts from $12/editor/month
G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5
8. Marvel
Marvel stands out as a leading UI/UX design tool, ideal for crafting diverse lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes and prototypes and facilitating HTML and CSS handovers. It proves to be an exceptional tool for enhancing the prototype interface, giving it the appearance of a polished final product.
The learning curve for this application design software is minimal, adding to its effectiveness in the seamless creation of prototypes and efficient design of interfaces.
Key Features:
- Facilitates swift prototyping, handoff, and testing.
- It presents a straightforward method for generating pages and even emulating your design through a prototype.
- Includes valuable integrations such as Sketch, Jira, Maze, Smartmockups, and others, allowing seamless incorporation of your designs into the project workflow.
- It provides a variety of tools tailored to each stage of the design process.
- It facilitates the creation of prototypes through gestures like swipe, pinch, and tap.
- Permits the addition of screen elements, importation of designs, and numerous other features to enhance your prototypes.
- The Handoff feature accommodates the HTML code and CSS styles essential for developers to initiate prototype development.
- It extends support for interactivity and animations.
Suitable for: Prototyping, Designing, Wireframing, Animation
Works on: Web, iOS, and Android
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts from $8/month
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5
9. Balsamiq
A beloved wireframing tool among designers, product managers, and innovators, Balsamiq stands out as one of the finest UI design software options. Specifically crafted to generate low-fidelity wireframes, Balsamiq facilitates users and testers in concentrating on the usability and flow of the interface.
Despite its simplicity, this tool comes highly recommended for UX designers of all expertise levels, enabling a swift demonstration of the usability of a proposed site or application.
Balsamiq proves beneficial for product managers and entrepreneurs seeking to translate their ideas from thoughts to paper. With a straightforward learning curve, even individuals lacking coding knowledge can effectively utilize this design software.
Key Features:
- Assists in crafting low-fidelity wireframes to emphasize functionality and user flow.
- It provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor for effortless and straightforward design.
- Includes a repository of tools and reusable icons, empowering designers to select and generate compelling real-time mockups.
- It permits the incorporation of links into interactive prototypes for demonstrations or usability testing.
- It facilitates the showcasing of wireframes on the internet through images and interactive PDFs.
- It offers a 30-day complimentary trial period.
Suitable for: Mockups, Prototyping, Wireframing
Works on: Browser, macOS, and Windows
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Starts at $9/month/2 projects
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5
10. Origami Studio
In contrast to alternative UX design tools such as InVision, Origami Studio stands out as an exceptionally advanced software crafted explicitly for professionals. Initially developed for designers at Facebook, it is now accessible for free.
Origami Studio possesses a learning curve, transforming it into a sophisticated prototyping tool suitable for beginners. Positioned as one of the cutting-edge UX tools available, it facilitates lifelike interactions and provides smooth integration with Sketch.
Key Features:
- Establish the rationale behind prototypes through the utilization of its patch editor.
- It provides an extensive patch library, available for users in real-time.
- Seamlessly duplicate and transfer layers from Sketch without experiencing any interruptions.
- It serves as a comprehensive tool for the processes of prototyping, designing, and animation.
- Facilitates the effortless editing of dynamic layouts.
- It exhibits excellent integration capabilities with both Sketch and Figma.
Suitable for: Prototyping, Designing, Animation
Works on: macOS, Android, and iOS devices
Free trial/version available: Yes
Price: Free
G2 rating: N/A
How do you pick the right UI/UX design tool?
When selecting the appropriate UI/UX design tool, consider the following factors during the shortlisting process.
For Prototyping:
Examine features like a no-code interface, easy export and sharing functions, animations, and support for responsive design.
For Wireframing:
Choose tools that provide free components such as icons, shortcuts for processes, and straightforward controls.
For Mockups:
Ensure that the chosen tool offers numerous built-in tools for designing recreations.
For Collaboration:
As design is a collaborative effort, opt for a tool that supports project collaboration, allowing for commenting, tagging, and marking.
Plugins:
Check for plugin support in your chosen tool, enabling designers to extend functionality when certain required functions are missing.
UI Kits and Resources:
Save time by selecting a tool with UI Kits and resources, such as templates, themes, etc., to expedite the design process.
Integrations:
Choose a UI/UX design tool with integrations to streamline processes and facilitate seamless data sharing between platforms like CRM, Cloud, etc., ensuring efficiency in the overall design process.
Conclusion
Implementing these revolutionary UI/UX methods can significantly boost user engagement and craft an outstanding digital experience. The overall user experience is improved through personalization, microcopy, gamification, and visual feedback. Emotional connections and inclusivity are fostered by storytelling, seamless onboarding, and accessibility.
Adapting to users’ changing needs is achieved through mobile optimization, social integration, and continuous improvement. Embrace these groundbreaking techniques to enhance your user engagement strategies and observe the transformative impact on the success of your digital platform.